Confocal microscopes optically section tissue to produce sectional microscopic images of tissue, referred to herein as confocal images. An example of a confocal microscope is the VivaScope® confocal microscope manufactured by Caliber Imaging & Diagnostics, Inc. (fka Lucid, Inc., hereinafter Lucid, Inc.) of Rochester, N.Y., U.S.A. Other examples of confocal microscopes are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,788,639, 5,880,880, 7,394,592, 7,859,749, 5,995,867, and 7,864,996, incorporated herein in their entireties. A confocal microscope optically forms images of sections in non-histologically prepared naturally or surgically exposed in-vivo tissue, which are useful to evaluate a lesion in tissue without needing a biopsy and pathological evaluation on slides of histologically prepared, mechanically sectioned, tissue specimens from such biopsy. Also, confocal microscopes are useful for pathological examination of ex-vivo tissue, i.e., tissue removed from a patient, without requiring that such tissue be mechanically sectioned and histologically prepared for viewing on slides with a traditional microscope.
In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 7,864,996 describes a confocal microscope system for imaging tissue having a macroscopic imager for capturing a macroscopic image, and a confocal imager for capturing one or more optically formed sectional microscopic (confocal) images on or within tissue, a tissue attachment device, such as a tissue ring, in which the macroscopic imager and confocal imager are each individually presented to the tissue utilizing the tissue attachment device in a predefined alignment with the device, thereby imaging locations of the confocal imager with respect to the tissue surface spatially correlate with the macroscopic image. A computer system is coupled to the macroscopic imager and microscopic imager, and has a display, and memory for storing at least one macroscopic image received from the macroscopic imager and confocal images when received from the confocal imager. A user interface operable on the computer system enables display of the macroscopic image on a display coupled to the computer system, and then indicates a region within the macroscopic image associated with a field of view of the tissue imagible by the confocal imager. The user interface enables graphical tracking of the imaging location of the confocal imager in the macroscopic image, and targeting the confocal imager to capture confocal images at one or more imaging locations selected in the macroscopic image. The user interface also enables marking on the displayed macroscopic image of one or more locations of confocal images captured by the confocal imager that were selected by the user for storage in memory of the computer system. Such user interface generally has been incorporated in the VivaScope® 1500 confocal microscope.